This application claims priority from German Application 102006027724.4-24, filed Jun. 16, 2006.
The present invention concerns a separation element for a pressure compensation vessel, a pressure reservoir or a pulsation damper, in particular a safety separation element for such apparatuses, which has means for detecting and displaying a rupture location in such a separation element.
Pressure compensation vessels, pressure reservoirs and pulsation dampers are used for example in pipe conduit systems and hydraulic circuits in order to compensate for and/or damp fluctuations in pressure or volume therein. Pressure compensation vessels, pressure reservoirs and pulsation dampers usually comprise a housing in which two spaces or chambers are separated from each other in fluid-tight relationship (that is to say in liquid-tight and gas-tight relationship) by a flexible separation element. One of the two chambers is connected to the conduit system and filled with the liquid flowing in the conduit system (or a gas flowing in the conduit system). The second chamber usually contains a gas which is compressible and which can absorb fluctuations in pressure or volume in the first chamber by way of the flexible separation element. The separation element between the two chambers of a pressure compensation vessel, the pressure reservoir or a pulsation damper serves on the one hand to transmit fluctuations in pressure or volume and on the other hand to separate the different media in the chambers.
The separation elements which are known for pressure compensation vessels, pressure reservoirs and pulsation dampers usually comprise a flexible, fluid-tight diaphragm material such as for example various elastomers, PTFE and so forth and they can be of a single-layer or multi-layer structure. The known separation elements however all suffer from the common disadvantage that, in the event of a defect, for example when the flexible diaphragm material tears, the media from the first and the second chambers are mixed together and thus reliable operation of the pressure compensation vessel, the pressure reservoir or the pulsation damper is put at risk. Such a defect at the pressure compensation vessel, the pressure reservoir or the pulsation damper is usually established by way of the measurement of pressure fluctuations in the conduit system or in the gas-filled second chamber. That however means that a defect is detected only when the fluid-tight separation between the first chamber and the second chamber is no longer guaranteed and medium has passed across from the one chamber into the other chamber and the media have become mingled. The function of the separation element is thus already no longer implemented at the time of detection of a defect.